Effects of Cultural Methods in Controlling Maize Weevil (Sitophilus zeamais Motsch)

Abstract

An alternative to pesticide use in the storage ecosystem is the re-adoption o f traditional crop protection measures, which have gradually been ignored and replaced by chemical insecticides. Experiments were conducted to determine the efficacy o f some traditional insect pest control practices against the maize w eevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motsch. at Bako Research Center between 1996 and 1998. One to one and half kg o f BH-140 maize hybrid seeds were placed in cloth bags and infested with 100 adult maize weevils in the laboratory and left for natural infestation in the storehouse. Different cultural insect pest control methods were applied in the experiments that were arranged in a completely randomized design with four replications. Among the cultural methods, heating maize grain at 70-80°C in an oven for lhr, maize plus dockage, the mixture o f chemically treated maize with untreated maize and exposure to the sun showed comparable results to the standard insecticide primiphos-methyl at 10 ppm in protecting maize grain from the maize weevil. These cultural methods could be recommended for use as part o f an integrated pest management in stored maize particularly with low levels of pest infestation and small volume o f produce